RSPB SOUTH WILTSHIRE LOCAL GROUP Spring/Summer 2011 Newsletter No. 53 Dear Member I do hope something in our programme of events will tempt you to join us in the next few months. We have arranged field trips to the best local birding spots as well as illustrated talks at Salisbury Arts Centre with some of the best speakers available. Our two popular open days at the Society’s Garston Wood nature reserve near Sixpenny Handley are timed for the best of spring flowers and birdsong (Sunday 1 May) and summer flowers and butterflies (Sunday 10 July). Join us on one or both of these days and enjoy this beautiful coppiced woodland at its best. A group membership renewal form is enclosed and can either be returned by post or handed to John Pitman at one of our indoor meetings. On behalf of the local group committee and the Society, many thanks for your support. Tony Goddard – Group Leader Clovelly, Lower Road, Charlton all Saints, Salisbury, SP5 4HQ Fen orchid Tel: 01725 510309 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England & Wales no 207076, Scotland no Website : search “RSPB S Wilts local group” SC037654 Artwork copyright RSPB 1 SOUTH WILTS GROUP 200 CLUB £75 Mrs L M Horne (327) £50 Mrs S A Combes (180) Membership of the group’s “200 Plus Club” currently stands at 325 which means that over January £1,620 is being raised for RSPB conservation £40 Mr H J Theobald (230) work, with a similar amount being awarded in £30 Mr A D Vasquez (23) prizes. £20 Mrs P C Frost (127) £10 Mrs B E Evans (278) Our thirteenth year started in September 2010 with the draw at the first indoor meeting of February the season. If you wish to join, please ring £40 Mr V R Fryer (73) Tony Goddard on 01725 510309. £30 Mr J A C Pitman (53) £20 Mr A S & Mrs D J Brass (57) The rules can be summarised as follows: £10 Mr & Mrs R S Watts (170) 1. Membership costs £10 a year per number. 2. Half of the money collected is paid out in prizes, the other half is donated to RSPB conservation projects. 3. Draws take place at the ten monthly meetings from September to June. 4. The number and value of prizes is varied in accordance with the number of members to maintain fairness. 5. Winners are notified by post if they are not present at the draw. Recent winners were: September Peacock £40 Miss S A Owen (304) £30 Mr J E Holloway (38) £20 Mr M R Froud (167) GARSTON WOOD OPEN DAYS £10 Mrs J G Pender (77) Our ever popular Open Days at the Society’s Garston Wood Nature Reserve are held this October £40 Miss A S McKee (239) year on Sundays 1 May and 10 July. Free £30 Mrs S E Livingston (111) guided walks are offered and these take place £20 Mrs J S Rawkins (20) on the hour from 10am to 4pm inclusive. £10 Mrs A M Sherman (81) In May, weather permitting, we should be able to listen to blackcap, garden warbler and November £40 Mrs J M Ecob (305) willow warbler in full song whilst enjoying a £30 Mr L Cowen (110) spectacular backdrop of wildflowers, £20 Mr M R Froud (167) dominated by bluebells. In July, white £10 Mr & Mrs M E Crow (157) admirals and the large and impressive silver- washed fritillary will be on the wing and several species of orchids will be in flower. December £300 Mrs M Owen (204) £200 Mrs J I Broad (297) Do join us to enjoy the wonderful wildlife and £100 Mrs S M Thornton (166) learn about the management of this beautiful 2 woodland of hazel coppice with oak, ash and but please, no clothing, electrical goods or field maple standards. There will be displays knives. of coppice crafts by Pete Moors and this, together with art work by Roy Aplin, will be Please note the winter stall will be on on sale. Refreshments and sales goods will Tuesday this year on 1 November. also be available. Christmas Draw at the Arts Centre Garston Wood is one and a half miles north of We enjoyed another wonderful evening at the Sixpenny Handley on the road to Arts Centre with Ian Rowland’s slide talk on Bowerchalke. There is a small car park at the ‘Britain’s Whales, Dolphins and Seabirds’ northern end of the wood (SU 004195). and of course the ‘200 Club’ and Christmas Draws. Thanks go to all those who donated gifts for the Christmas Draw which helped us raise £899 for the RSPB - a record! Tesco’s collection We have again been asked by the RSPB if we would hold another collection outside the Tesco store on the Southampton road. It is only going to be for one day this year and will be on Thursday 9 June. This is an excellent FUND RAISING COMMITTEE way of raising funds for the RSPB and if you Jenny Edmett can help for an hour or so, please let me know. Market Stalls The fine weather held for our October stall last year with plenty of people visiting us and we ended up taking over £400 which is brilliant. Our thanks go to all the volunteers who helped on the day and to everyone who donated goods. 2011 Market Stalls We will again be running two stalls this year, the first being on Saturday 21 May. This is ‘Mayor Making’ day in Salisbury and there will be a procession from the Guild Hall to St Thomas’s Church and back again in the morning. We start setting up at 7.30am and finish around 1pm so there is plenty of time to Wimborne St Giles come and see us. Why not join us this year on Sunday 24 July for what is a typically English afternoon tea, As usual, we always need volunteers to help open from 3pm to 5pm. Wimborne St Giles us – even if you can only spare one hour - it is a lovely village and can easily be walked does enable those behind the stall to have a around to help give you an appetite for the break. Just give me a ring on 01980 862687. delicious food we serve. Donations of bric-a-brac, plants, books, We have built up an excellent reputation for preserves etc are always gratefully received providing good sandwiches and a variety of delicious cakes, including fresh cream 3 strawberry gateaux, scones, meringues etc. NEWS FROM RSPB’s WESSEX You can either be seated in the village hall or RESERVES outside in the garden. We hope to see you there. We are delighted to report a good 2010 stone- curlew nesting season at Winterbourne Downs nature reserve with four stone-curlew nesting pairs resulting in 3 chicks proven to have fledged. Notably one pair nested for the first time on newly created chalk grassland. Remarkably Normanton Down had a “full house” on its two fallow plots this year with one pair of stone-curlews nesting on one plot and fledging two chicks, and a pair that nested nearby walking their chick onto the other plot to fledge. The chalk grassland restoration plans at Winterbourne Downs are making great progress as a further 27 ha of arable fields DISCOVERING BIRDS AT were sown with a chalk grassland and LANGFORD LAKES wildflower mix this autumn. This brings the total to 132 ha of arable land being reverted Sunday 22 May here. The arable reversion works are now part of a new HLS agreement with Natural Wiltshire Ornithological Society and England, which includes a wide range of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust are holding an other wildlife friendly measures, including exciting event at Langford Lakes on Sunday over 12 ha of wild bird seed mixture plots. 22 May between 9am and 4pm. The event, “Discovering Birds”, is aimed at newcomers to birdwatching. There will be a programme of illustrated talks and guided walks aimed to help with the use of binoculars and the identification of birdsong - and there’ll be a demonstration of bird ringing. There will also be exhibits and quizzes and Ace Optics will have a stand selling binoculars and telescopes – and we’ll be there too with information and help from the RSPB! The WWT’s Langford Lakes Nature Reserve is in Steeple Langford half way between Salisbury and Warminster, just off the A36. During the bountiful autumn fruiting season, At this time of year hobbies should be our regular practical volunteer Ben Tasker hawking for insects over the lakes and it’s a stripped our lone female juniper bush of her great opportunity to see the recently extended berries just before our thrush friends could part of the reserve. turn their attention to them. We are very grateful to the band of hardy volunteers, who This event is sponsored by OPAL (the Open in mid–November braved the lashing rain, to Air Laboratories network) and the Big Lottery clear scrub from around the juniper bushes Fund. and plant out the juniper seeds and berries 4 along the old railway embankment. The main plovers, with up to 150 golden plover and 80 area of planting has been protected from lapwing have been observed on the winter rabbits and livestock by one of Plantlife’s grasslands. A peregrine falcon seems to have juniper cages. We were delighted to find that noticed all this too and included the reserve previous scrub clearance in this area has on its itinerary this winter.